A defense lawyer representing one of three Americans accused of torturing a dozen Afghan prisoners in a private jail showed video in court yesterday of Afghanistan's former education minister congratulating the group and offering his help in arresting terrorists.
The tape showed former minister Yunus Qanooni, an influential figure in the Northern Alliance that helped the US oust the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001, meeting with Jonathan Idema, leader of the counterterrorism group, and promising help.
PHOTO: AP
"Any cooperation, we are ready. We have a small security group," Qanooni says on the tape in broken English. Another video appears to show Qanooni's security forces coming along on a raid on the home of a suspect that Idema claims was plotting to kill the Afghan politician.
Idema claims his activities were sanctioned by the Pentagon, and says the Afghan government was also behind his efforts to track down terrorists. He and two other Americans -- Edward Caraballo and Brent Bennett -- were arrested on July 5 by Afghan intelligence agents. Authorities found about a dozen prisoners tied up at the site and say there is evidence of torture.
The trio face up to 20 years in jail if convicted. Four alleged Afghan accomplices are also on trial. A verdict had been expected yesterday, but the judge postponed the proceedings for a week to allow Bennett more time to get a lawyer. Idema is representing himself.
The footage of Qanooni, also a senior Afghan government security advisor, appeared to support Idema's claim he had official sanction.
Chief prosecutor Mohammed Nahim Dawari conceded that Idema had contacts with Afghan officials, but he said they were held on the presumption that the American was a legitimate operative backed by the US government.
The Afghan government and the US military insist the men were operating without their knowledge and outside the law. Still, the US military has admitted receiving from Idema a prisoner who had been subsequently released.
NATO peacekeepers, known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), also say they were duped into helping the men on three raids in the capital, footage of one of which was shown in court. On two of the raids, traces of explosives were found.
"Does the court think that ISAF would send me 50 soldiers and 10 vehicles if they didn't know who we were?" Idema told the court. "ISAF knew exactly who we were."
In an interview from custody on Saturday, Idema told reporters that he had been hot on the trail of al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri at the time of his arrest.
Caraballo's lawyer, Michael Skibbie, said his client was a journalist who fully believed that Idema's operation was legitimate.
Another tape played in court yesterday showed Idema interrogating a prisoner, Ghulam Saki, who was heard describing how he was paid to commit acts of terrorism.
However, Saki, who was seated in the courtroom, told reporters that his confession was false and that he'd been tortured.
Yesterday's proceedings were often chaotic, with Idema, the prosecutor and witnesses in the gallery shouting out at once.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
RSS